Serbian hacker culture

As seen in this traditional Serbian restaurant where the first assembly of early arrivals for the conference met for local food and drink, its culture has a rich and storied (and tragic) history. Much of the country is poor and still recovering from the brutal 1999 NATO bombings - which put Serbian hackers in the news for the first time when they took out NATO's servers with a weeklong DDoS in a push back to stop the bombings.

Novi Sad, where BalCCon is having its first hacker Congress, was punished beyond the pale in NATO's aggression. This made for a determined hacker population that had no out-of-the-box computing like many other hacker cultures, and shapes the views of Balkan hackers to make them like no other hacker population on Earth.

But like most hackers, generalizing does them a disservice, and at BalCCon we've seen the gamut, from Linux evangelists and hacktivists to science hackers, hackers-for-good - and, of course, black hats with 'crew' names.

Much of Novi Sad is "under repair" - this house matches all the ones on its block, just across the street from where a 5-star hotel is, and half a block another is being constructed:

First Balkan Hacker Conference

BalCCon's co-organizer Jelena Georgijevic explained that while there have been a few hacking-related gatherings and interest in establishing a Balkan Hackerspaces culture (there is only currently one Hackerspace in Belgrade), this event is the first official, large-scale hacker conference in the region.

In the interest of reflecting the talks, workshops, hardware hacking, skill sharing and community growing for hackers of all interests and intents as seen in conferences such as Germany's CCC, America's Defcon and Holland's Ohm, in the past 24 hours BalCCon has offered the start of all these things, and more.

Balkan computer history on display

At BalCCon, there is a large area where vintage, still-working computers and various boxes are on display. A table of sweet, historic, computers has been set up so attendees can play retro video games on them - which has been going on nonstop.

Maja Asanovic presents at BalCCon

The second inagural speaker to BalCCon's stage was Maja Asanovic, digital privacy and human rights activist and one of the founders of Serbia's Pirate Movement.

Her talk encapsulated the context of BalCCon as not just a time to hack and learn but to look at what is happening in the United States with both its disturbingly flawed computer laws and NSA spying revelations.

This, she said, meant that since Serbia is still behind the times in both regards that there are big opportunities happening now for Serbian hackers to learn from America's problems and work to establish computer laws and policies that respect and strengthen human rights.

BalCCon workshop: standing room only

In progress as we're about to publish this gallery, BalCCon's large workshop room is currently standing room only, with a jubilant vibe - and full of more smiles than I've seen yet in Serbia - for BalCCon's hands-on Day 2 Physical Security Workshop.

We'll be bringing you more hacker news from Serbia in the next 24 hours.

24 hours in Serbia at Balkan hacker conference BalCCon

This weekend the Balkan Computer Congress BalCCon: First Contact is putting Balkan hackers center stage with international hackers at the first-ever Balkan hacker conference.

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Maja Asanovic presents at BalCCon

The second inagural speaker to BalCCon's stage was Maja Asanovic, digital privacy and human rights activist and one of the founders of Serbia's Pirate Movement.

Her talk encapsulated the context of BalCCon as not just a time to hack and learn but to look at what is happening in the United States with both its disturbingly flawed computer laws and NSA spying revelations.

This, she said, meant that since Serbia is still behind the times in both regards that there are big opportunities happening now for Serbian hackers to learn from America's problems and work to establish computer laws and policies that respect and strengthen human rights.